Parentland
So after another awful trip to Nof&ck (and is there really any other kind), I drove back to DC, had lunch with Lawyer X, and then caught a plane to Colorado Springs aka Parentland.
I hadn't seen my parents since Christmas and they are getting up there, so I wanted to go visit and check in on them. I arrived on their 49th anniversary, so I scored the bonus points there. Of course, I can't believe they are still married since sometimes they snip at each other pretty badly. But if you've been living with someone for 49 years, no doubt some of it will rub you the wrong way.
Anyways, they are doing okay for their age and I'm really happy about that. But coming back to the Springs is a weird experience for me. Most of my high school friends have moved on, so there's no one there for me to hang out with. So it's the parental units, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
And first thing Firday AM, it was time for the chores. Oh yes, I had a long "honey do" list to accomplish. Mom was certain that Dad had wired the new VCR incorrectly since she couldn't program her shows. And after a good half hour trying to figure the thing out, I finally realized that the VCR/DVD combo doesn't have a tuner. So it can't record her shows. So we get saddled up and head to Sears where she had bought it. And why Sears I have no idea. And the nice guy at Sears basically confirms that you can't buy an old style VCR anymore. They sell the types that will play VHS tapes, but they can't record shows. Unless you want to shell out $300+ bucks. Pass. We're off to Best Buy. Where the strangely thin and overly tattooed "geek squad" helper explained that technology has moved on and it's all about DVR now. They did have a VCR recorder, but again it was in the $300+ range. And really, isn't it time for my parents to wake up and smell the Tivo? So we purchased the Tivo despite my Mom's fear of any new technology and headed home. Now the real work began. I had to move the VCR from the downstairs den to Mom's bedroom. The VCR from the upstairs den to the downstairs den. And then install the Tivo in the upstairs den. Quite the drill of musical VCRs. But I got it all working and I think Mom even understands how it works. I hope so, it is really easy to use!
Friday night, I joined Mom and Dad at the Martini club. It's a group of their friends that get together once a month for drinks and "heavy horses" as my mother says (hor d'ourves). I was easily the youngest person there, except for one lady who may have been a trophy wife. Not exactly sure. Anyways, it was very pleasant and I played the dutiful son quite well. When asked about my family, I just replied that I was single. No need to go into the whole gay thing. It would definitely make Mom and dad feel weird and just not something I needed to go into. I didn't lie about it, I just didn't talk about it.
Now, one of the highlights of the trip was that I was going to get a chance to catch up with Lawyer X's sister, Agent K. She lives in the Springs and so we had planned to get together for drinks and dinner on Saturday night. So she came over to my parent's place where we had a drink with my Mom and Dad. It was all very civil and very nice. So that was good. Afterwards, we hit this cool new restaurant (well new to Agent K and I) in the Springs called
Blue Star. It's in a part of town that I would call sketchy, but it was really nice. Of course, we open the door and the little lobby area is packed with the prom set. Wow. Do I feel old or what? But we made our way to the bar and sampled an adult beverage before we got our table. Had a great time eating, drinking, and just chatting. So much fun and Special K is just great. After a very filling (and yet oddly cheap (well by DC standards)) dinner, Agent K dropped me off back at my folks.
Sunday was interesting. I know have a glimpse into what divorce kids have to go through. On Sunday AM, Dad and I went to the Episcopal church and Mom went to the Anglican church. There's a huge back story there that I won't go into, but needless to say, it's all very odd. After the service, we drove up north to an Italian restaurant for brunch which was good. I'm now now shy at all about ordering a cocktail at brunch. If I'm not driving, why not. After a post brunch nap, I climbed up on the roof to try to caulk the skylights over the deck. (I called Lawyer X on Saturday to tell him I was cruising Homo Depot looking for caulk. I thought it was funny, but he was not amused!) Anyways, I climb up to the roof to try to caulk around the skylights which I guess leak during rain/snow melt. It got rather cold up there and when I was done I looked towards the mountains and they were gone. The storm was rolling in and the mountains were no longer visible. A clear sign that I needed to get off the roof.
When I woke up this AM, it was actually snowing! Friday, sunny, 70s degrees, shorts weather. Monday, snowing! Yep, that's Colorado for you.
Anyways, with the exception of some missing luggage (details!), the trip back was uneventful. Lawyer X was waiting for me and it was great to see him again.
I think that's my last trip till Paris at the end of May, but Lawyer X goes into trial mode so I'm not sure how much of him I'll be seeing. Kind of a bummer, but I'll deal. I seriously need to get back into my gym routine.
Labels: colorado, parents
Tilghman Island
You know what’s weird?
Now that I have a social life, I don’t seem to work insane hours (well as insane) which is good I guess.
But I apparently don’t blog as much either.
Hmm, go to dinner with Lawyer X, or blog?
Wii bowling with Lawyer X, or blog?
(Insert almost anything) with Lawyer X, or blog.
Seems the blogging is losing out in this deal.
I’ll try to find a way to balance my real social life and my online life a bit better.
Anyways, so Lawyer X and I passed a major milestone last weekend. First it was our 6th month anniversary (the exact date we started officially “dating” is kind of arbitrary, but that’s what I’m saying it is) and we had our first trip together! Yep, we decided to skip out of town and where did we go? Tilghman Island, MD. Yes, I know, how random, and not very gay, but it was great!
We actually ditched work on Friday and around 1030 or so we headed out to Annapolis. Can someone please explain to me why traffic SUCKS heading out of DC on a Friday morning? Anyhoo, we made it out to Annapolis and the weather was GLORIOUS! After some rainy, dreary, cold days, the weather had finally turned and it was just amazing. We had lunch at Chick and Ruth’s, a serious dive from my midshipman days. The food was good and the milkshake was delicious! Afterwards, we walked around the Yard (USNA campus) and I showed him the Chapel, John Paul Jones’ crypt, some of the academic buildings, Bancroft Hall, etc. It was fun, though I can’t seem to remember a lot of the details anymore. It must be that getting old thing. We hit the Midshipman Store for some quality shopping and then got on the road around 4PMish for the eastern shore.
So the drive was fine and we made our way to Tilghman Island Inn. Now I had heard about this from the Washingtonian’s website and it looks really nice. Plus they had a really nice restaurant and Lawyer X is a foodie. So I knew he would be happy. The Inn was really nice, on the edge of a channel and across the water is a marsh area where you could see all sorts of egrets, ducks, etc. Very nice room, with a fireplace on a timer and a bathtub spa! After settling in a bit, we sampled the cheese plate and champagne that we got as part of the weekend package. Very nice. After a couple of glasses of champagne, we went down to dinner, with a quick stop at the bar for a cocktail to enjoy as we watched the sun setting. Since the Inn is on the western edge of the eastern shore, we had a beautiful sunset over the water. Dinner was amazing. And included a couple of glasses of wine. And then we had a dessert wine to finish the meal. If you are counting, that makes basically 6 different drinks. Needless to say, after dinner I wanted to make sure I got a glass of ice water to take back to the room. At the bar was the executive chef. When we had come down for dinner originally, he had been at the bar working on his 3rd or 4th glass of scotch, or so I thought. Well by this point he was pretty buzzed and very chatty. He’s talking about his grandkids, etc and now I’m tired and starting to tune him out. And then all of a sudden, he’s talking about his partner!! Apparently they own the Inn and one runs the Inn and the other the restaurant! So I guess it was going to be a gay weekend after all.
Saturday AM, we sort of slept in and then got up around 10ish to grab a quick light breakfast before heading up to St. Michael’s. St. Michael’s is just the cutest little village. It’s a short drive away. We parked and then basically walked about the town. Had lunch at a restaurant in the harbor and then wandered around the little shops that lined the main street. The weather was amazing again and the little town was packed with tourists. We wandered over to the local winery for a tasting and since the outside area was full we were taken deep into the winery where the settling tanks are and where they have another sampling area. It was kind of dark, and cool, and it was kind of romantic back there. We sampled some wines and most of them were good. Lawyer X bought some a cabernet, while I got the chocolate zin (a-ma-zing!). After that, we discovered that the local brewery was right next to the winery (talk about some city planning!) and so we had to sample a flight of the local beer. Some good stuff and some interesting conversations with the locals. Afterwards, we drove down to a small town that has the oldest, consecutively running, private ferry which took us across the river to Oxford. The ferry could probably only hold 9 cars and it was a short ferry ride, but it was just fun to do. Oxford is another one of those picturesque towns and the waterfront houses are all just so pretty. And I’m sure quite a pretty penny. Our whole mission to Oxford? To get ice cream. Apparently the ice cream place there is quite well known and we both got two HUGE scoops. Birthday Cake Oreo and Carrot Cake for me. OMG, so good. And if you notice a food and alcohol theme for the weekend, you wouldn’t be wrong. At all. Back on the ferry and then back to the Inn where we did an encore of the afternoon cheese plate and champagne. Yum. Then I had made reservations in St. Michael at another high end restaurant. Apparently Rumsfeld and Cheney eat there occasionally. If I had known that ahead of time, then I would have gone somewhere else, but as it was they were not there and I didn’t have to try to do a citizen’s arrest on them. Dinner was again phenomenal. And included some great wine. We were fat, buzzed, and happy by the time we made our way back to the Inn.
Another leisurely get up on Sunday AM. I will say that it’s weird to hear boats going by in the morning. But they actually have a real fishing fleet at Tilghman Island, plus all of the wannabe weekend fisherman, so the channel was hopping. Brunch was included in our package so we settled in to another great meal. Gumbo, eggs benedict & French toast with grand marnier, and then a brownie with ice cream for dessert. All so delicious! Now, you know how I hate to talk about other people, oh wait, I actually like to do that. So let me tell you about the other guests having brunch. A nice couple (boring), a cute young gay couple (hate them), and then we had this one straight couple. He was a bit older (late 40s), a bit dumpy, glasses, tragic comb over. Just kind of sad. His “companion”? She was Asian, much younger, but not really that attractive. Sporting a black bustier that highlighted her ample chest and then some black short, shorts. For BRUNCH? This is what you wear to brunch? After I pushed my eyeballs back into my head, I’m like, “don’t look at them, don’t look at them. “ But it’s like a car wreck. I can’t *not* look. That’s when I notice the short shorts have a big metal zipper that goes all the way up. Lovely. When he starts to feed her salad (salad?!?!?!), that’s when I’m like, we gotta go. Just too weird.
On the drive back to DC we hit the outlets just before the bay bridge and did quite a bit of damage.
Overall, the weekend ROCKED! Just some good quality time with Lawyer X. We got along amazingly well. The Inn was fabulous! The food was great. And the liquor was copious! So it all adds up to an amazing weekend!
Labels: Lawyer X, vacation
Joint Custody and Those Crazy Fundies
So with Lawyer X virtually sequestered preparing for some legal thing (yawn!) on Tuesday, I've gotten joint custody of the Princess. I was just going to walk her highness this evening and then I succumbed to her "poor little me" look and decided that since Lawyer X was working late that she should spend the night with me. She's already claimed her spot on my good red chair and when I went to fold some laundry she just hopped up on the bed and curled up. No, please. Make yourself at home! I'm assuming that Lawyer X will show up at some point as well.
And if this is all sounding slightly domesticated, it is. And secretly I'm loving it.
Now, I'm used to pop culture stealing things from gay culture and turning it into something hot and trendy. I got that. But now it seems the fundies are trying to steal some of our things and needless to say they aren't good at it. Sigh. Teabagging Parties? Really? Are you kidding me?
And then it was Two Million For Marriage, but they thought they would be hip and call it 2M4M. Wow. Really. Is it possible to be that cut off from reality? Or to not have the common sense to look up what these things mean before you decide to make it the centerpiece of your political message? Of course, considering who these people are and how archaic their political message is, I think they deserve all of the ridicule that they get!
These people really need to get a life.
Iowa, Vermont, and Thomas Jefferson
Wow, what a crazy couple of days.
Iowa. Again wow. Who would have thought that change, dramatic change, would happen so quickly in the heartland. Bravo to the Republican judges who ruled in support of gay marriage. Bravo!
And I love this clip. Kind of makes me tear up inside:
And Vermont!
You paved the way for civil unions and now this huge step towards equality. Thank you! I'll be having some of
Ben & Jerry's Americone Dream to celebrate your vote (vote! not court decision!) and to help out your economy. And while I love Americone Dream already, if you think about it, the American dream is life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. So it just makes sense to celebrate with Americone dream!
Despite the fact that work sucks my will to live lately, I surfed around the intertubes looking at the responses to both the results in Iowa and Vermont, I stopped by
Jimbo's blog where he had some famous words by Thomas Jefferson that are inscribed in the walls of the Thomas Jefferson memorial on the Mall:
"I am not an advocate for frequent changes in laws and constitutions. But laws and institutions must go hand in hand with the progress of the human mind. As that becomes more developed, more enlightened, as new discoveries are made, new truths discovered and manners and opinions change, with the change of circumstances, institutions must advance also to keep pace with the times. We might as well require a man to wear still the coat which fitted him when a boy as civilized society to remain ever under the regimen of their barbarous ancestors."
Were our founding fathers amazing or what? I'd like to take some of our current politicians down there to show them what a real statesman looks like. I've always liked the TJ Memorial the best. I need to go back down there again soon.
Labels: gay marriage
